news of the weed

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Medical cannabis patients, campaigners, and experts plus two MPs went to 10 Downing street to demand urgent action on Medical Cannabis. Later they met with other MP's, plus Lords and supporters at a packed meeting in the Houses of Parliament.

Above: Anita Curzon who suffers from Fibro Myalgia outside 10 Downing Street to deliver a petition to Tony Blair calling for action on medical cannabis. At the meeting in Parliament afterwards she said: "After using pharmaceutical drugs and having the horrific side effects that come along with them, it actually makes me very, very angry that I have to be made a criminal for using what is a natural based drug, which does not have nearly the side effects that pharmaceutical drugs have."

Above: The event was organised by the Cannabis Education Trust because of 'intermiable' delays and 'foot dragging' by the government despite election promices.

At meeting in Parliament Lord Rhy, who was closely involved in writing the ground breaking 'House of Lords Report on Medical Cannabis'. He said that the government had been "sitting on it for a very long time. It is taking an intermiable time for the license to be given to Sativex, which is the best product on the market at the moment. There is a very deep counter campaign going on (against medical cannabis). We want to know who is it that is influencing the decision making that is holding this thing up."

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

we need the NHS: natural healing service

Above and below: We need the NHS - the Natural Healing Service. Today campaigners will be going to Downing Street and Parliament Square to call for medical cannabis to be supplied free by the NHS to treat pain, MS and many other ailments. They also want specialist 'cannabis clinics' run by experts to be set up, and the end to all prosecutions for the private use of medical cannabis.

Campaigners say these policies could save the NHS millions, if not billions of tax payers cash which currently goes into the pockets of big pharmaceutical 'drug dealers' for drugs that often do not work as well as cannabis.

Petition to Downing Street - Wednesday 24th May 2006

To raise awareness of the issues and injustices that face medical cannabis users, would-be users, growers and those who supply sick and disabled people.

2. Who benefits from medicinal cannabis prohibition?We also invite you to consider the following issues:

• The fact that Sativex (mouth spray) is still virtually unobtainable for UK patients.

• The relative real costs of each form of medicinal cannabis, and the potential savings to the National Health Service budget if 'herbal' medical cannabis was allowed, as well as the more expensive pharmaceutical preperations.

• The effectiveness of natural 'organic' cannabis tinctures, and hemp-based creams, along with vaporised, smoked or ingested herbal cannabis.What is really in the best public interest?

1. Recognition of the unique medicinal benefits of the cannabis plant in pharmaceutical and 'organic' herbal preperations.

2. The establishment of medical 'cannabis clinics' run by experts.

3. An end to the prosecution of medical cannabis users, growers and those who supply sick and disabled people in the UK.

4. Further and broader medicinal cannabis research.

5. The establishment of a Committee of those with expertise in this field to examine the above issues with urgency.

6. A programme of honest education about the real issues surrounding medical cannabis.

medical cannabis: winston churchill used it, why can't everyone else?

Above: Winston Churchill in London yesterday. Tomorrow campaigners will be going to No 10 Downing Street to take to deliver a letter asking his predecessor Tony Blair to pull his finger out and make medical cannabis available on the national health, like he promised he would if the research was positive - and it is!

cannabis: queen victoria's healer, why not everyone elses?

Friday, May 19, 2006

cannabis grandma for number 10 downing st, May 24th

Above:Cannabis Grandma, Pat Tabram says the biggest dangerous drug dealers in Britain are the pharmaceutical companies. She says they are the real rats. She will be leading a delegation of medical cannabis users and experts to No 10 Downing Street on Weds 24th May, to give Tony Blair a good ticking off. He still has not kept his promises on medical cannabis.

There will also be a 'Medical Cannabis Awareness Day' demonstration all day in Parliament Sq, and a lobby of MP's.

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Heather Mills, Paul McCartney's ex, demanded that he quit smoking cannabis before she would marry him. She said choose between me or the spliffs.

'Him and (his first wife) Linda smoked it every day for the whole of their lives together,' she said of a relationship that lasted more than 30 years. 'But I would not get married to him if he was taking drugs. I hate it.'

What Heather did not mention of course is that Linda McCartney who died of cancer, benefited greatly from using the drug medically to off set the effects of chemo therapy.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

cannabis: effective pain relief after major surgery says new study

Scientists at Londons Imperial College have just announced research that shows cannabis gives effective pain relief after major surgery, such as knee operations, "with minimal side effects, at low doses."

Dr Anita Holdcroft, from Imperial College, the lead researcher said: "Pain after surgery continues to be a problem because many of the commonly used drugs are either ineffective or have too many side effects. These results show that cannabinoids are effective, and may lead to the development of a wider range of drugs to manage postoperative pain."

Previous research has shown that cannabinoids help top up the bodys natural system for reducing pain sensation.

The researchers used a cannabis extract called 'Cannador' which is taken orally. 'Cannador' was developed by a non-profit group, the 'Institute for Clinical Research' in Berlin, Germany.

Thousands of people in Britain who could benefit from the cannabis based drug 'Sativex' made by GW Pharmaceuticals can't get it, and campaigners believe this could be because of a widely reported but flawed inquest held in Sheffield last year.

The inquest ruled that Sativex played "a significant role" in the death of Mrs Anderson, a 69 year old diabetic - but failed to consider the fact that Sativex contains a significant amount of alcohol.

Diabetics are very sensitive to alcohol - it can kill them!

During the inquest it emerged that Mrs Anderson, who took Sativex every day for several weeks, was probally given too much, and her dose was reduced after she complained of side effects.

In his ruling the coroner, Chris Dorries said: "On the balance of probabilities, I find that the initial drug reaction (cannabis) must have been a significant contributory factor in at least the initiation of the illness which continued."

But he failed to mention the other drug involved - alcohol. Unlike cannabis, alcohol kills thousands of people every year.The coroner recorded a 'narrative verdict', finding that Mrs Anderson died from kidney failure due to Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome "following resolving pneumonia due to immobility arising from toxic brain syndrome".

The coroner ordered that a transcript of his findings be sent to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regul-atory Authority, a government agency responsible for ensuring that all medicines are acceptably safe.

News of the Weed adds: Sativex is a very useful cannabis preperation and should be made available now, but if Mrs Anderson had been given the correct dose of a non alcoholic version of Sativex as used by the Cannabis Grandma, or THC4MS (cannabis chocolate) she would have been ok.

This is why campaigners are calling for 'Cannabis Clinics' - run by people who know what they are doing.

Ironically there is no record of anyone ever dying from cannabis - untill a drug company tried to 'make it safe'.•GP Pharmasecticals published the Preliminary Results from their 'Sativex® Phase III Multiple Sclerosis spasticity study' in March this year. Every study they have done looks good - but the government is still dragging it's feet. Meanwhile thousands of people suffer.

save rooney's foot campaign: this THC cream could help win the world cup for britain

Above: This jar of 'Hemp Cream' could help win the World Cup for Britain - except for the crazy rules that out law the use of medical cannabis.

Doctors are doing everything they can to speed up the healing process for brilliant goal scoring British football star Wayne Rooney who may not be able to play in the World Cup because of a broken foot.

They are making Wayne Rooney sleep in an oxygen tent, they may be using lazers on him, and if they had access to alien technology they would use it - but they won't use medical cannabis.

Britain's chance to win the world cup could be lost because of a crazy law. If Rooney was to use the cannabis cream he could heal quicker - but fail a drugs test and be out of the world cup anyway.

Meanwhile thousands of people are 'out of life' because of the ban on medical cannabis. It can help MS sufferers stay out of wheel chairs, and help recovery from anti cancer treatments, and off set the side effects of drug treatments for AID's.

The only people who benefit from the ban on medical cannabis are the drug companies selling products that do not work as well.

That is why there is a worldwide campaign to legalise medical cannabis - and why representatives of the campaign in Britain, and medical cannabis users will be meeting MP's on the 24th May to demand urgent action.

Organised by members of the Cannabis Education Trust which is calling for the government to give GW Pharmaceuticals the go ahead now to distribute Sativex in Britain, for the establishment of 'Medical Cannabis Clinics', and for the end of prosecutions of people using and growing cannabis for medical purposes.

Thursday, May 11, 2006

shoe sue: dea agent who shot himself in the foot to sue the dea

DEA Agent Lee Paige, 45, loved to lecture on the perils of drugs, but in front of a class room of Florida school kids, it was he who ended up in peril - of himself.

Paige produced a Glock .40 hand gun in front of the kids, told them he was the only one in the room professional enough to carry the weapon - and then shot him self in the foot.

Once the target of dangerous drug dealers, Paige says he is now the "target of jokes, derision, ridicule, and disparaging comments" thanks to a video of the incident being put on the internet - by colleges in the DEA.

Now he is suing the DEA because he has suffered "emotional pain and suffering, mental anguish, loss of the enjoyment of life, loss of reputation, loss of opportunity, loss of money, embarrassment, humiliation and anxiety."

'News of the Weed' says: maybe Paige should join the CIA - the 'Cannabis Inhalers Association'.

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

new brain scan research technique finds no cannabis effect on teenage tokers

DIFFUSION TENSOR IMAGING, a newly developed magnetic resonance imaging technique, enables researchers to gain a better understanding of the effects of cannabis on the brain.

In a preliminary study published today in the open access journal Harm Reduction Journal, researchers used diffusion tensor imaging to compare the brain tissue of young people who had used cannabis moderately as teenagers, and young people who had not.

The researchers failed to find any indication that damage to the developing adolescent brain occurred.

Lynn DeLisi and colleagues from the Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research and New York University School of Medicine used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to scan the brain of 10 young people who had smoked cannabis during adolescence. The participants were between 17 and 30 years old, they had smoked at least two to three times a week for one or more years during adolescence and had no personal or family history of mental health problems. They were matched for sex, age and social class of parents with 10 controls who had not smoked cannabis regularly as teenagers.

DTI is a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique that enables a detailed look at the organisation of nerves in the brain and the measurement of brain volume.

DeLisi and her colleagues found no significant differences in brain integrity and brain volume between cannabis smokers and non-smokers.

Their preliminary study suggests that moderate cannabis use has no direct adverse effects on brain structure and integrity.

The authors warn however, that more research is necessary, both in a larger group of people, and to see the effects of heavier use. Hopefully they will be given more cash for research.

supporting THC4MS: cannabis confessions required

The Judge has indicated that the THC4MS x 3 will be taken for trial. Grandma Pat Tabram is also likely to be put on trial as a medical cannabis user.

In North Wales, Jeff Ditchfield is facing charges of conspiracy and others. Previously, Chris Baldwin, Colin Davies have been sent to prison, and the late Biz Ivol and Tony Taylor and others have been taken to court - there are MANY others who have been prosecuted for medical cannabis cultivation or possession.

Quite clearly - and remembering that the law says still that cannabis has no medicinal value - this is an ATTACK on medical users and suppliers.

In the US, Cheech was locked up for running an on-line paraphenalia shop; in the UK several shops selling growing equipment have been told not to sell seeds.

This is an attack on cannabis users.

Meanwhile, with respect to the campaigners and organisers, 2006 promises already two forms of protect: one in the cause of cannabis medicine, the other in the name of hemp. Prohibitionists have for some time accused the medical cannabis movement, as well as the pro-hemp movements of being in reality, legalisers. Now it's like the reverse is happening: the legalisers are becoming the medical activists and hemp activists!

Whilst the prohibitionists accused those of trying to legalise cannabis by the back doors (false in the past, maybe), legalisers are now saying to me that medical and industrial cannabis based campaigns meet with less public and authority resistance.

Make no mistake: the UK and US Governments are "at war" with cannabis users: sure, the law may have changed to allow police to focus on crack cocaine etc, but wherever that problem of hard drugs is solved (in small communities at least), police turn their attention on cannabis growers and users! It's just that they seldom get mentioned in the press.

WE ARE AT WAR.

The question is are we all now prepared to STAND together side by side against this prohibition?

The ONE reason why people say "no" is out of some type of fear: fear of getting busted, of losing a job, of losing a friend or disrupting a family = all the things that happen in a "war" - all the things that may ultimately happen to each one of us anyway. So many people have said they would like to be more actively involved but cannot because of their jobs etc - and yet I know of not ONE cannabis campaigner who has lost their jobs - even those few brave professionals like Linda Hendry, Derek Williams, Pat Cadman ... not one.

THE REALITY

The Court is not going to legalise cannabis for us - they are about law, rules, games, debates, NOT justice There's more "heart" in mathematics! If some of those judges and barristers were told to take THC4MS x 3 out and shoot them, believe me, they would (maybe also out of fear).

The Politicians are not going to legalise cannabis for us as they have no reason to. The People are not going to do it - even 5 to 10 million users - mostly too afraid to act. The media will not do it. the dealers will not do it. Neither will the church.

WHO?

The ONLY people who will bring on legalisation is the campaigners. Let FEAR defeat us now and we have LOST. Stand arm in arm and we can win. A "conspiracy of three" is an easy target. Of 40 a little more difficult. Of hundreds even more difficult.

WE NEED to stand side by side in Court - to demand that we are charged too with conspiracy however small our involvement (simply telling people about the work and media who have given THC4MS free adverts, universities, doctors, patients, organisers of fairs giving free space, leaflet distributors, donors - all guilty!

SO I AM ASKING NOW ..

.... that each person who gets this letter:1. joins us in our "Confessions" in the ACTION forum at http://www.lca-uk.org/lcaforum. This is where 46 people so far have already shown solidarity can be seen.

2. passes on this letter to at least three more people

3. prints out ONE PAGE for signed confessions (three people) and tries their hardest to find three people to sign it and post it to LCA, PO Box 198, Norwich, NR3 3WB (email me for the form)

'Counter Punch' reports that the US American Food and Drug Administration chose the 20 of April (4.20) to issue a total lie: the assertion that "no scientific studies" supported the medical use of marijuana.

"The statement was not the work of a panel of experts reviewing recent research. It was issued, supposedly, in response to numerous Congressional inquiries, but actually at the behest of the DEA and the Drug Czar's Office. Its release on 4/20, a day of special significance to marijuana users, shows the juvenility of its authors, who apparently regard Prohibition as a little game they're playing with the American people".

However the American people may be waking up to the fact they may be the most lied to and ripped off people in the world.

The day after the 4.20 Drug Czar's statement the New York Times quoted Dr. Daniele Piomelli, a professor of pharmacology at the University of California, Irvine, in a front page story refuting much of the official government line. Dr. Piomelli said he had:

"never met a scientist who would say that marijuana is either dangerous or useless."

• More at the excellent 'Counter Punch' which publishes an extensive feature, by Fred Gardner editor of 'O'Shaughnessy's' the Journal of the California Cannabis Research Medical Group. He traces what happened after a study into the effects of marijuana use by pregnant mothers found no harmful effects: the study was buried, and funding for a follow up study was refused.

News of the Weed says:Seems the US government pays more attention to the Witch Doctors at the Drug Czars office, than to real scientists.

Meanwhile Republican and Democratic senators have called for drug czar John Walters to be fired because of his focus on marijuana instead of methamphetamine, which really is a killer.

Saturday, May 06, 2006

marches in 200 cities worldwide demand legalisation of cannabis

Above: Opps... schmoo sparked off a minor security alert taking this picture in the rain outside The Cabinet Office in Whitehall today. The 'Anti Terrorist Squad' were very nice, once they realised we were not part of the radical 'Bring Back Charles Clarke Campaign', and were in fact supporting Medical Cannabis as part of the 'Global Cannabis Action Day'. We were shocked how rusty the Cabinet Office sign has been allowed to get.

schmoo says: I have given up using cannabis, but I still support the end of cannabis prohibition worldwide and in Britain - for health reasons. The government says cannabis prohibition should continue because it is a dangerous drug, and the law should protect people's health. Certainly for some people cannabis does have it's dangers, and they should not use it. But prohibition is much more dangerous than cannabis, as we know from the days of Al Capone. That is why cannabis should be legalised now - to protect people's health.

Above: Medical cannabis campaigners visited the the 'Home Office' in London today as part of the Global Cannabis Action, but there was no one in, as sadly the previous occupier, Charles Clarke, has been evicted.

'News of the Weed' says: Charles Clarke was one of the best Home Secreteries ever. This is not a difficult accomplishment, after people like Michael Howard, but we will miss him.

• As part of the Global Action there will be a MEDICAL CANNABIS DEMONSTRATION, @ PARLIAMENT SQUARE & 10 DOWNING STREET, WEDS MAY 24th 2006 (10am-5pm).

Friday, May 05, 2006

cannabis goes to coventry: global marijuana music awards 2006

There may not be a cannabis festival this year, but the closest thing will be at the UK Hemp Expo 29 & 30 July at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry.

As part of the 'Global Marijuana Muic Awards'which will be happening at the Hemp Expo, there will be live performances from Los Guys, Jules Levy, Tony England & the Coffeeshop Band from the UK, Assi Rose from India and Ruffstar Family from Holland. Paul Bullock, Pot Poet from Texas will be MC, assisted by the Hot Pot Pixie also from the US. For more info check out marijuanamusicawards.com"

2006 GMMA ALMOST FINAL TALLY

The Almost Final Tally for the 2006 Global Marijuana Music Awards is a whopping 223 entries from 7 countries! Marijuana musicians entered from the US, UK, Australia, Holland, India, Austria & Germany. Music styles range from Punk Rock to Texas Country Music, from Chicago Gangster Rap to Calypso from India, all with one thing in common - they're all about Marijuana! Meanwhile there are still 3 weeks left to enter: entry details at: www.marijuanamusicawards.com